U.S. and China agree to temporarily stop raising tariffs after Trump-Xi talks in Argentina

And on the sidelines of the G20,President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping reached a deal to keep their countries' trade tensions from escalating... at least for a while.Our Ko Roon-hee reports. Is the trade war between the world's two largest economies finally coming to an end?The U.S. and China on Saturday put a temporary halt on new tariffs... after their leaders met in Argentina. The White House released a statement saying that on January 1st President Trump will leave tariffs on 200-billion U.S. dollars worth of Chinese goods at 10 percent.This means he's holding off on his previous vow to raise the tariffs to 25 percent. The statement added that Beijing agreed to buy an unspecified, but very substantial amount of agricultural, energy, industrial and other products from the U.S... to reduce the trade imbalance. Trade negotiations are expected to continue on tough issues, including top U.S. concerns related to forced technology transfers and intellectual property.The White House statement says that if the two countries cannot come up with an agreement in the next 90 days, the 10% tariffs will be raised to 25%. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi also confirmed Saturday that the two leaders agreed to stop imposing additional tariffs on each other.Wang said the discussions were very positive and constructive.Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg Economics, the Trump administration's tariffs at 25% would have meant a drag on China's GDP growth of 0-point-9 percentage points a year.The 10% tariff will mean it takes a hit of just half a percentage point. Either way, the trade war affects South Korea as well because many local companies rely greatly on exports to these economies.There are still risks, though, since the tariffs can go up after 90 days.Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News.